Taylor looked to be heading for a comfortable win in the final as he raced into a 7—2 lead. However, the Australian stormed back to level at 7—7.

Nevertheless, Taylor held his nerve to win the last three legs of the match to complete a 10—7 win and to seal his sixth Premier League title.

Taylor won the third event of the Players Championship in March with a 6—1 victory over Wes Newton while averaging He also hit a nine-darter earlier in the tournament during his second round match against Tony West.

Taylor hit his second nine-dart finish of the weekend in a first round match against Peter Hudson. Taylor had missed a total of 23 darts at doubles and, in doing so, suffered his sixth defeat in a major PDC final out of the 72 he had contested.

He had beaten Raymond van Barneveld 6—5 in the quarter-finals and Wes Newton 6—3 in the semis at the event in Berlin. Taylor then won his fifth consecutive World Matchplay title and thirteenth in total.

In September, Taylor suffered defeat in the European Championship for the first time in a 10—6 quarter-final loss to Brendan Dolan. He averaged just Taylor qualified from Group 4 of the Championship League winning all nine of his games and concluding with a 6—1 win over Mark Walsh.

It was a match that was billed as a clash between the two best players in the world. Taylor lost in consecutive Players Championship finals over the last weekend of November to both Chisnall and Van Gerwen despite averaging in the latter.

However, Taylor allowed Hamilton only one chance to win the match when on a 60 finish. Hamilton missed the board with his first dart and failed to hit double 20 with his third as Taylor won the five consecutive legs he required to win 10—9.

Taylor won his 16th World Championship at the staging of the event. He lost only nine legs on the way to the semi-finals where he played Raymond van Barneveld.

The pair were escorted from the stage separately by security staff. They survived two match darts against South Africa in the last 16 and one against Wales in the semi-finals before facing the Belgian brothers Ronny and Kim Huybrechts in the final.

He did just that by virtue of a 4—1 win. Taylor did not finish top of the Premier League for the first time this year. Taylor started the better of the two as he led 5—3 at the break.

However, he then lost four successive legs upon the resumption of play. In the 14th leg, Van Gerwen opted not to go for the bull when on 87 and Taylor stepped in to hit a finish to level the match at 7—7.

At 9—8 down, Taylor had left 40 after 12 darts. Nonetheless, Van Gerwen hit a finish on the bull to seal a 10—8 win and the title. This proved successful as at the next major event Taylor won his fifth UK Open title.

He had to compete in the second round due to being ranked 44th on the UK Open Order of Merit after only competing in four of the eight Qualifiers and not advancing beyond the quarter-finals in any of them.

Dolan missed three match darts to win 9—7 before Taylor threw an 11 dart leg in the decider. Taylor then won the Gibraltar Darts Trophy.

He dropped just seven legs in the six matches he played which concluded with a 6—1 victory over Jamie Lewis in the final.

Neither referee Russ Bray nor his opponent Dean Winstanley noticed the error and Taylor went on to win the match 6—1. Taylor insisted that he had not realised that the dart had missed and offered to replay the match and forfeit his prize money.

His tournament average through legs was He thrashed Dave Chisnall 6—0 in sets in the final with Chisnall having to wait until the final set to pick up his first leg of the match.

After claiming Group 1 by beating Lewis 6—1, having also hit a nine-darter earlier in the day, Taylor topped the Winners Group and went on to defeat Van Gerwen 6—3 in the final.

Taylor was involved in a high quality darts match in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts against Lewis as he averaged The players hit 32 s between them breaking the PDC record of 31 which was set in the World Championship final, a match which had 32 more legs than this one.

Both players described the game as the greatest they had been involved in afterwards. It was his second perfect leg of the day after he had also hit one in the last 16 against Andy Hamilton.

Taylor lost 6—5 against Gary Anderson in the final of the third Players Championship. Earlier in the tournament, he had beaten Van Gerwen 6—5, who averaged and hit a nine-darter.

He had also seen off Terry Jenkins 6—4 despite him averaging Taylor played seven matches on the day and ended up with an overall average of His form in the Premier League picked up remarkably as he remained unbeaten in his final 11 matches which included a 7—4 victory over Van Gerwen.

Taylor finished third in the table for the second year in a row to qualify for the play-offs. This was the first time that the Dutchman had beaten him in the tournament in 21 attempts.

Taylor and Lewis could not complete a hat-trick of World Cup of Darts titles as they were defeated by the Netherlands in the final.

Taylor threw his 10th televised nine-dart finish in the second round of the World Matchplay during a 13—6 win over Michael Smith.

Taylor won the inaugural Perth Darts Masters after beating Van Gerwen in the final 11—9 whilst averaging This was the first time that Wade had beaten Taylor in a major televised knockout tournament.

Despite taking an initial 5—0 lead, the final was by far his closest match of the event as Chisnall fought back to 10—10, before Taylor rediscovered his best form to win another five unanswered legs and seal his sixth Grand Slam title 16— Taylor reached the semi-finals of the World Championship without facing a top 16 player.

His closest game came in the third round where he edged past Kim Huybrechts 4—3. Instead he fell 6—4 behind, but again rallied to draw level missing one dart at double 12 for a nine darter in the process.

However, more failed attempts at doubles proved costly as he could not take out double 16 with three darts to hold throw in the deciding set and was defeated 7—6.

It is the eighth highest televised average of all-time and the highest to lose a match. Taylor had kicked off the final by beating Wright 4—0 whilst setting the highest individual average in the history of the event at He also missed a dart at the bullseye for a nine-dart finish during the match.

Taylor held 3—0 and 7—3 leads over Van Gerwen in the final of the Grand Slam , but then missed far too many doubles and went on to lose 16— The defeat meant that Taylor held no majors for the first time since In the third round of the World Championship , Jelle Klaasen missed one dart to knock Taylor out and the match went to a deciding set.

Taylor went 2—0 up in legs and a missed a match dart himself in the next, before Klaasen fought back to win the final set 4—2. An hour later Taylor averaged Taylor and Lewis won their fourth World Cup crown by overcoming the Netherlands in the final, with Lewis beating Van Gerwen in the deciding match.

It did not seem to affect Van Gerwen though, as he won 18— It was the first time since that Taylor had played in an event shown by the station and he dominated it by winning 52 legs over the weekend whilst only losing 19, culminating with an 11—5 victory over Van Gerwen in the final.

He also lost 16—10 to Peter Wright in the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam. Huybrechts took two consecutive sets, but missed darts to force a decider and Taylor hit double seven to set up a quarter-final match against Raymond van Barneveld.

He did not play in the Grand Prix or UK Open, but did make a final appearance at the World Matchplay, which he had previously said was his favourite tournament and his aim to win for a 16th time at his last appearance.

Taylor did just that, courtesy of comprehensive wins over career-rivals van Barneveld, van Gerwen, Lewis, and Wright in the final. Taylor also won a world series event in his final season, and reached the final of his last event in the series, which he lost to Wright.

On 27 January , in an interview conducted before the start of the Masters , Taylor officially confirmed his intention to retire from darts after the World Darts Championship.

Taylor gained the lead for the first time at 7—6, but missed a host of doubles including one to win the match and was beaten 10—9. Dennis Priestley and Phil Taylor have played each other in five World Finals, with Priestley winning in and Taylor emerging victorious in , , and Following the split in darts , the players had already gone through large expenses to fight court cases that would last until when they were finally able to overturn a ban by the British Darts Organisation.

Their arrangement lasted between and and made sound financial sense given that one or the other generally delivered success in the immediate years after the split.

Taylor and Priestley first met in major competition in the World Masters. Taylor won that semi-final encounter en route to the title.

Priestley then assumed the upper hand in their rivalry, however, with victories over Taylor in the quarter finals of the World Championship, and in the British Matchplay final later that year.

He later said it was tough to beat such a great friend that way. A turning point came in the World Championship , where Part and Taylor met in the final.

Part took a 4—1 lead but Taylor hit back to take the lead, 5—4. Part won the PDC World Championship and became the second player after Taylor to have won the tournament more than once.

Darts was denied a great rivalry as the two best players were unable to compete against each other regularly due to the split in the game.

Van Barneveld switched to the PDC in Their first clash came in the Premier League Darts tournament and ended in a 7—7 draw.

The match has been described as the greatest game in the history of darts. In major PDC tournaments in , Taylor defeated van Barneveld twice in the Premier League , [] lost by 10 legs to nine in the quarter-finals of the UK Open , [] but won the World Grand Prix against his rival by six sets to two.

In the Premier League Darts the pair met three times. Twice during the league states, with both matches ending in a draw. Then, in the semi finals they met again.

Despite an early 4—1 lead for Taylor, the match turned around and Van Barneveld won the match 8—5 to claim his first televised victory against Taylor in more than six years.

Van Barneveld defeated Taylor in both their league encounters in the Premier League, winning 7—4 despite Taylor hitting a In the World Championship van Barneveld defeated Taylor in the quarter-final.

James Wade has won nine PDC major titles since he burst onto the scene in Wade handed Taylor his first defeat in a Premier League match in The quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix was the first time Wade defeated Taylor in a televised knockout match.

Taylor and Wade met in competition on at least 71 occasions, with Taylor winning 51 and Wade winning 14, with 6 draws.

The pair have been part of what has been a feisty rivalry at times. For instance, in their semi-final meeting at the World Grand Prix , Taylor accused Lewis of playing up to the crowd to put him off.

Lewis and Taylor have met in four PDC major finals during their rivalry. These have included the finals of the and European Championship which Taylor won 11—5 and 11—8 respectively, the final of the Masters which Taylor won 10—1, as well as the final of the World Matchplay where Taylor averaged The latter involved Lewis playing in his first Matchplay final where he averaged However, in October Van Gerwen won his first PDC major and when the two met in the last 16 of the Grand Slam of Darts , the match was billed as a clash between the two best players in the world.

Van Gerwen took the match 10—5 with it being signalled as the start of a new era in darts. A few months later, van Gerwen became the first player other than Taylor to finish top of the table of the Premier League with the two meeting in the final which van Gerwen won 10—8.

Taylor then won the next three high-profile meetings which included the finals of the Sydney Darts Masters and Championship League Darts. Van Gerwen won seven successive legs from 6—3 down before emerging victorious 11—7.

In January , Van Gerwen won the World Championship and replaced Taylor as the world number one, [] and a month later inflicted the first whitewash over Taylor in Premier League history by beating him 7—0 in 13 minutes with an average of In July, they contested the final of the World Matchplay ; Taylor won 11 of the first 13 legs and went on to win 18—9, averaging The loss reduced Van Gerwen to tears on the stage afterwards.

At the Masters van Gerwen became the first player to win 5 matches in a row against Taylor. Taylor defeated Van Gerwen 11—5 in the final of the inaugural Champions League of Darts tournament in September , having defeated him 10—4 in an earlier group match.

However, Taylor soon achieved success in his own right. Judge told Taylor that he should have a nickname and "The Power" became the serendipitous choice after Judge stepped on an empty CD case of Snap!

Taylor and his former wife Yvonne born have four children: Lisa born , Chris born , Kelly born and Natalie born In , following an exhibition match in Fife, Scotland, Taylor returned to his van accompanied by two women, aged 23 and 25, who subsequently accused him of indecent assault.

He has appeared on several BBC television shows over the years. Taylor was seen only briefly on screen and had no dialogue. An episode featured a girl named Laura, a huge darts fan who wrote into the show wanting to meet and play darts with Taylor.

It was recorded in when the World Grand Prix was in Dublin. It was released on 18 May, the night after the play-offs at the O2 in London, where it was premiered.

Taylor did hold records for high scoring in darts. His three-dart average per match records were the highest in the history of the game.

No player has a winning head-to-head record against him. Taylor has a From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Phil Taylor Taylor in This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification.

Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately , especially if potentially libelous or harmful.

Phil Taylor career statistics. Archived from the original on 25 July Retrieved 24 July Archived from the original on 12 March Retrieved 9 August Stoke-on-Trent Pits n Pots.

Retrieved 4 January Retrieved 18 January Retrieved 23 July The Big Name in Darts. Retrieved 30 November Retrieved 27 July Retrieved 15 October Retrieved 21 August Retrieved 12 August Retrieved 22 August Retrieved 3 September Retrieved 16 August Archived from the original on 1 February Retrieved 23 August Retrieved 1 August Retrieved 13 March Retrieved 31 July Archived from the original on 16 December Retrieved 24 August Retrieved 17 August Retrieved 26 August Retrieved 27 August Retrieved 12 September Retrieved 28 August Archived from the original on 13 September Retrieved 10 October Retrieved 29 August Retrieved 30 August Retrieved 5 September Archived from the original on 23 January Retrieved 18 September Retrieved 8 September Retrieved 10 September Retrieved 16 October Archived from the original on 6 July Archived from the original on 1 May Archived from the original on 22 July Retrieved 11 September Archived from the original on 12 July Retrieved on 13 August Retrieved 28 December Archived from the original on 7 February Retrieved 7 February Archived from the original on 12 February Retrieved 10 February Archived from the original on 18 February Retrieved 16 February Archived from the original on 5 March Retrieved 2 March Archived from the original on 7 May Retrieved 3 May Archived from the original on 13 May Retrieved 16 May Archived from the original on 21 May Retrieved 18 May Archived from the original on 13 March Retrieved 11 March Retrieved 12 March Retrieved 10 June Archived from the original on 13 June Archived from the original on 27 June Retrieved 24 June Retrieved 29 July Archived from the original on 30 July Archived from the original on 1 August The leg after the nine-darter the fourth leg of the fifth set van Gerwen hit another eight perfect darts but missed the last dart at the double to achieve consecutive nine-dart finishes.

Unusually, both players lost their matches. He lost the match 3—4 to Raymond van Barneveld. He would then go on to defeat Adrian Lewis 7—5 in the final to retain his title and become only the 4th person to successfully retain his title after winning it for the first time.

Phil Taylor has achieved this feat more than any other darts player on television, [11] having done so 11 times.

Despite having achieved the feat a record 11 times, Taylor has never hit a nine-darter in the World Championship , missing a chance on the outside wire of double 12 in his last ever match in the Final.

The youngest player to throw a televised nine-darter is Michael van Gerwen , who hit the perfect leg in the semi-finals of the Masters of Darts tournament in the Netherlands.

The event was screened live in the Netherlands. Van Gerwen has since gone on to hit 4 more televised nine-darters. The event was shown live on ITV4 , making it the first time a nine-darter had been seen live on free-to-air television in the United Kingdom.

Wade lost the match Mervyn King hit his first televised nine-dart finish in the South African Masters on September against James Wade — he became the first player to hit a televised nine-darter outside of Europe.

On 24 May , in the Premier League final against James Wade, Taylor made history by being the first player to ever hit two 9-dart finishes in a single match.

These were his seventh and eighth nine-dart finishes. Brendan Dolan became the first player ever to hit a nine-darter in a double-in double-out game.

He opened with double 20, before hitting successive treble 20s , and then finished on with T20, T17 and a bullseye.

In October at the World Grand Prix , James Wade followed soon after by Robert Thornton became the first players to both hit a nine-darter in the same match.

James Wade went on to win the match This tournament was double-in double-out , meaning the 2nd and 3rd televised double-in double-out nine-dart-finishes were hit in the same match.

Currently over professional darts players have achieved nine-dart finishes, both televised and untelevised. Prior to there had been around As of 14 November , 53 televised nine-darters have been achieved by 25 different men, 33 of those 52 hit two s and finished with a check-out.

Only 3 have been double-in double-out. The following table lists the number of nine-darters scored by players who have scored a televised nine-darter.

With nine-dart finishes now thrown on a regular basis the reward for throwing one has decreased. In the bonus stopped being awarded. If multiple players hit a nine-dart finish in one premier event, the money is split evenly across all players who achieved a nine-dart finish in that event.

So the prize for a nine-darter varies for every PDC premier event. Mandy Soloman was the first woman to ever record a nine-dart finish in actual competition.

It was the first time female players were allowed to enter the qualifying rounds for the BDO World Championship. Hughes did end up winning the match 2—0 though.

Ten-time World Champion Trina Gulliver revealed she has twice missed her last dart to record a nine-dart finish. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Retrieved 15 December Retrieved 25 October Singapore Slinger at Ally Pally - 22 years on from first televised nine-darter".

Archived from the original on 31 December Michael van Gerwen beats James Wade to reach final". Retrieved 10 February Two nine-dart finishes in same match to equal Phil Taylor".

Archived from the original on 10 October Retrieved 9 October Retrieved 2 December Retrieved 21 June Retrieved 1 January Retrieved 23 June Archived from the original on 14 December Archived from the original on 2 January Retrieved 14 December Retrieved 19 November Archived from the original on 25 May